John Battelle's Searchblog

I use Google Search on my Treo 680 - not an iPhone guy, as I like unlocked phones - all the time. I tried the Goog-411 once, but why even try to pronounce what you can type (or tap) out?

mp/m

Google lets you search for *free* while the phone company collects a toll every time you call 411. Google allows free forms searches while the phone company can only find a business by name for a particular city. No competition.

John, I think what surprised Google was not the number of mobile searches but that "50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset". I certainly think that Google gets mobile search, one need only look at Android.

The 50x claim is spurious at best. I'm sure iPhone users search a lot more, but 50x? That would suggest that Google gets almost no searches on other devices. And yet, I distinctly remember articles written where they've claimed to get boatloads of mobile searches, even before the iPhone. I cannot believe that no one even thinks to analyze the likely veracity of these claims. Google always gets a pass on thruthfulness.

I agree but at the same time I don't get it. Why would Google even make such a claim? How does exaggerating the number of searches from iPhones help them in any way?

John, I think what surprised Google was not the number of mobile searches but that "50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset". I certainly think that Google gets mobile search, one need only look at Android.

As an iPhone user I totally believe this report to be true. For starters the Google search engine is embedded at every turn on the iPhone, but the even bigger factor is that the iPhone has the best mobile browser period. You'd be amazed how many more searches you do when you can actually view and read the web page.

Addressing Mike M's comment about iPhones being unlocked. It is inexpensive now to get iPhones unlocked in the greater China area (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong). i just paid someone 30usd this past weekend to unlock my US iPhone with the latest version of sw 1.1.3. all the functions work. Visitors to the far east take note.

I feel the 50-times claim is a bit exagerrated. But I wonder why Google is making such a statement. And is the statement based on search volume based on US based traffic?

At Mobile World Congress AT&T claimed that 95% of iPhone users are using search. Blogged about here:

http://cparente.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/95-of-users-can-that-be-right/

Google allows free forms searches while the phone company can only find a business by name for a particular city. No competition.